The Korean Wave

International Journal of Communication 11(2017), 2241–2249 1932–8036/20170005

Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at http://ijoc.org.

The Korean Wave: Retrospect and Prospect

Introduction

DAL YONG JIN1

Simon Fraser University, Canada

TAE-JIN YOON

Yonsei University, Korea

The Korean Wave (hallyu in Korean) marks a historical point and celebrates its 20th

anniversary in 2017. The Korean Wave primarily started with a few well-made television

dramas that were popular in East Asia, and the local cultural industries have advanced

several cultural forms, including K-pop and digital games, which have gradually

penetrated global markets. This Special Section focuses on the origin of the Korean

Wave, and the articles emphasize either theoretical challenges in hallyu studies or

empirical cases of hallyu in various areas of the world. The primary purpose of this

Special Section is to explore the history of the Korean Wave as a catalyst of regional and

global change by analyzing the evolution, structure, mechanisms, and strategies

employed by the music, television, film, digital games, and animation industries in the

global markets and their shifting relationships with the state. As the foundational basis

for the articles in this Special Section, our goal in this introduction is to provide several

key dimensions of the Korean Wave to help readers understand the nature of the

emerging local popular culture and digital technologies as a new trend.

Keywords: Korean Wave, transnational popular culture, cultural flows, hallyu, globalization,

digital technologies

The Korean Wave, symbolizing the rapid growth of Korea’s cultural industries and their exports of

cultural products in Asia mainly since 1997, marks a historical point and celebrates its 20th anniversary in

2017. When Korean culture started to penetrate several Asian countries in the late 1990s, it was

considered a fad by some Asian audiences because Korea had never developed popular culture that was

well received in other countries. However, since then, Korea has continued to develop several forms of

popular culture that have penetrated other parts of the world.

Date submitted: 2017–04–21

1 This Special Section was supported by the Academy of Korean Studies Grant (AKS-2016-C01).

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